


Breakthrough

by wwatd



Series: Breakdown Lives - AU [1]
Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Breakdown Lives (Transformers), Dreadwing Dies (Transformers), Gen, Inner Dialogue, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27774109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wwatd/pseuds/wwatd
Summary: Dreadwing dies instead of Breakdown in “Crossfire”.  It leaves him to wonder what this means, both for his place in the Decepticons and for himself.
Series: Breakdown Lives - AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031826
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Breakthrough

He didn’t know how he was going to explain this. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to, or if he had to at all. Airachnid had provoked him and he’d responded, despite Dreadwing’s warnings, and now there was a dead mech in front of him and the severed leg of his murderer. But he can hardly remember why they were out here, why all three of them were sent together and why Megatron’s vote of confidence had seemed so not-harmless.

Breakdown figures it’s past time to call for backup. Maybe try and put out a warrant for Airachnid’s murder, but that’d be given in a report once—if—he returned.

...Oh, who is he kidding? Breakdown can’t defect. He did it once and that was supposed to be _it_. He can’t switch back into one faction or the other like some backstrutless writhe, he’s got a reputation to restore! Even if Megatron really did send them out here with the idea of one of them dying, owning up to that won’t get him anywhere.

And he can’t leave without Doc. Part of him is thanking the Allspark itself for not taking him from his partner, but looking down at Dreadwing he can’t keep all of his guilt at bay. He’s lost mecha before, it’s war, it happens. He’d lost many when he’d broke away from the Wreckers. But infighting was different, he didn’t think you could brush this off as another necessary casualty.

He sits down next to him for a moment, resting from his own injuries. The color in his optics and the energon in his frame have long since drained, he’s already going a sallow gray. Breakdown looks at him, frowns a bit. _Hope you’re seeing your brother, even if you didn’t get payback._

He liked Dreadwing, it was nice having another big blue mech around. He wasn’t too approachable, not like the troops or miners or Knockout, but he was willing to talk with Breakdown and responded to him in a leveled way that seemed nice between all of the chaos. Breakdown can’t say any of the war has been easy, but ever since he and Doc shacked up on the _Nemesis_ things have gone a bit square.

He’s lucky Airachnid didn’t take out his other optic. She’d gotten close with those spindles of hers, but he’d ducked in time. Breakdown was good at taking hits, but dodging had saved his life. Dreadwing had saved his life, more importantly. At his own expense, for some odd reason.

He’d seemed pretty pissed at both of them for fighting, Breakdown hadn’t been sure who he’d been aiming for until Airachnid started to get the upper hand. There was a lot of boundaries that had been laid without him being sure of it. He wasn’t sure what Megatron thought of any of them; why he’d chosen all three of them in specific for this. He hadn’t been sure what Airachnid and Dreadwing thought of each other, he hadn’t even suspected they would have ganged up on him until now. 

Breakdown thinks he has a few allies. Not many, now that Dreadwing proved his mettle and perished. Starscream had at least tried to arrange an escape for him, but he was expecting Breakdown to return the favor somehow. Doc always has his back, there’s just about nothing in the universe that could get them to turn on each other. The troops like him, but he’s not sure that means much in consideration to whom he may call ‘enemies’.

Okay, maybe he’s got a little less than he used to, but that’s fine. He’s still alive, isn’t he?

Breakdown can’t carry Dreadwing’s body back right now. He’s not sure what they’d even do with him, besides smelt him down. He’ll have to ask Screamer if that’s proper arrangements for Seekers—

Ah, no, he guesses not. No one’s seen Scream for awhile, now. He’s not going to ask, though, that’s for certain. The only mech he can think of that may have a clue is Soundwave, but that’s a stretch that’ll pop a joint out of socket.

He resorts to simply adjusting him to an angle that doesn’t leave his neck cabling almost snapped. Nudges a wing into the correct angle and says a quiet goodbye to another ‘con.

But, as he stands, the world seems to need a moment.

It’s dead quiet. The Earth is a loud, chaotic planet. There’s always some little creature humming away or scraping at the ground. Until now, where he can’t hear even a bug chittering near-pede. The cold humidity makes his sensors attune to the after-rain scent of the morning and fog. Something has died and the land is reeling from the battle. Breakdown wants to sit back down again, wants to think a little bit more about what this might’ve meant, but he can’t just stand around forever.

He touches to his comm. “I need a ‘bridge, we’re done here.”

The words sound loud in the silence, he can hear his own armor shifting as he turns to face the opening groundbridge. He can’t run. Not like Starscream or Airachnid, they’ve done things against Megatron that are worthy of their exiling. Breakdown has a place, Dreadwing has given him the chance to go back and he can’t make his death meaningless. Someone’s got to fill the empty space, it might as well be him.

*

Megatron had had some faith in Dreadwing, truly. Airachnid was formidable, undeniably cunning and fresh in her schemes, but Dreadwing was a warrior of his own and had been given a task he was sworn to try and go through with.

To hear his demise is one disappointment of its own; to find his only returning subordinate _be Breakdown_ is an outcome of incredulous chance.

He’s simple with his debriefing, explaining how Airachnid coaxed him into battle and Dreadwing’s subsequent defending of him. How foolish to put himself over the life of a mech unaware to that level. Breakdown thinks the battle spontaneous, coincidental and, while Megatron can see him trying to put on an iron face, distressing. His life—his _survival_ —isn’t even a show of worthiness. It’s luck.

For all Megatron had thought of. For all of the second-in-commands he had planned for and dealt with, no scenario imagined Breakdown fitting the bill. He doesn’t, Megatron isn’t going to promote him both of the basis of his lacking skill and the disappointment that he’d proved without the title.

In moments, the loss of Shockwave seems glaring.

“You’re dismissed,” he says, unclasping a servo from behind his back to motion to the door.

Breakdown nods, unkneeling, then hesitates. “Sir, what are we going to do with his body?”

Megatron has already turned his attention away from him, not expecting the question. “We’ll retrieve it in due time,” he says, not deciding whether that’s a lie or not yet, “but we’ve bigger matters to deal with.”

Breakdown’s uneven steps echo as he leaves. Megatron’s suspected that this, along with his time beneath MECH’s scalpels, has shaken Breakdown’s faith. It’s not a good problem to have, with their newfound losses and the constant streak of misfortune he’s having with runaway mecha, but an issue that shouldn’t affect anyone other than the off-roader.

He doesn’t even tell Soundwave to keep an eye on him, it’s an implosion not worth either of their time.

He’s got to figure out what to do with the new hole in his ranks and whatever message Airachnid has sent the _Nemesis_.


End file.
